Sarah Brown
Student Data Journal
Educational Specialist in Administration & Supervision
Graduated, Summer 2018
Clarksdale, MS
Sarah Hawley was born and raised on a fruit farm in Michigan. She lived with a Nicaraguan family during her service with the U.S. Peace Corps before joining the 2009 Teach For America corps in the Mississippi Delta. Sarah taught at a Spanish immersion elementary school in Clarksdale, MS, then transitioned into roles as a Data Coach and Technology Inventory Specialist for the CMSD Race to the Top Grant Office. She earned a Master’s degree in Elementary Education from Delta State University and a Educational Specialist degree in Administration and Supervision. Sarah draws motivation from small successes—from a village designing a fresh water project to students building confidence in their own abilities.
Sarah’s Social Entrepreneurship project focused on empowering elementary students to set and track their own educational goals through data-driven decision making. The Student Data Journal is a simple but powerful tool that guides teachers and students in conversations about academic progress, encouraging students to take ownership of their learning.
Starting in September 2016, Sarah developed the idea to help students monitor their academic progress through goal-setting and data tracking. With mentorship and collaboration from teachers and principals, she refined the project parameters by spring 2017. Over the summer, she drafted the physical data journal, which was then professionally designed in fall 2017. After gathering feedback and piloting goal-setting activities with students, she finalized the journal’s design and tracking systems by early 2018. Sarah submitted the Student Data Journal for copyright in March 2018 and planned to pursue publishing later that year to make the journal widely available to students and educators.
Though no longer based in Mississippi or working on this project, Sarah’s work remains a model for student-led motivation and data ownership in education.
